Giro d'Italia 2020, Stage 3: Enna – Etna 150 km

[movingtarget]

Could end up seeing the three muppets Froome, Thomas and Bernal starting a GT together after all.

No dominant teams here, good stuff, ripe ground for a randomer totally fluking one from a breakaway.

Be surprised if Ineos win the Vuelta with the year they are having.

 

[Salvarani]

A very entertaining GC so far... Almeida is going to be a hard nut to be cracked...

It will be interesting to follow him. He is a young rider and this is his first GT. A top 10 in the end would be really good. More is a lot to ask for.

Lots of potential for the future.

 

[johnymax]

After years of watching the Tour this is the first Giro I am watching... and boy have I already been blown away. That stage was way more entertaining than almost any Tour stage I've seen.

That's usually because of a much weaker field. And I'm not talking about the GC contenders, but the domestiques. You don't have a strong team to control the pace on the climbs and you can get total anarchy from the beginning. Especially after Astana lost Lopez and Vlasov.

Imagine the Tour Jumbo team on today's climb. They finish with 5 riders in the top10.

 

[SKSemtex]

Could end up seeing the three muppets Froome, Thomas and Bernal starting a GT together after all.

No dominant teams here, good stuff, ripe ground for a randomer totally fluking one from a breakaway.

With no dominant team able to control and with all those classic type stages we will see a lot of attacks, big fights for breakaways, and GC fighting and working not only last 3 km. Hopefully.
And probably another very surprising winner.

 

[Jagartrott]

This could turn into a Nibali-Kruijswijk rematch, with Fuglsang as the third contender.

I think Kelderman has better chances than Kruijswijk, and Fuglsang so far has never shown he can do 3-week races well from start to finish. Majka is a good climber and has a good team, but he will bleed time in the TTs. Kelderman is my outside bet at this point.

 

[Velolover2]

Hopefully a lot of the immediate stages will be more crucial with no super-team or rider in the race.

The stages 6, 10, 12, 13 and 16 don't need to be reduced peloton sprints if thought of as hilly classics.

 

[Escarabajo]

Some people were saying Giro was over after stage 1. LOL.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

It's a shame, that Caicedo didn't make it in time.

Duckie would've looked Pretty in Pink.

 

[johnymax]

Could end up seeing the three muppets Froome, Thomas and Bernal starting a GT together after all.

With all three of them doing domestique work for Carapaz. That would be the only sensible decision.

 

[tobydawq]

It's almost as if he was only a random fan and not an expert.

What is an expert?

I certainly know way more about the recent history of professional cycling and the current pro riders than many people who are labelled experts by their employers.

Yet I'm just a random fan.

 

[Izzyeviel]

When I click on that link I will get the big
Giro d'Italia 2020 STAGE 3 PREVIEW - Mount ETNA Will be it Geraint Thomas in Pink?

Final 20Km here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adoHT-81CgY&ab_channel=SnookerPlanet

 

[Breezy1985]

Birdsong is more explosive than Nibali, Majka, Pozzovivo and Kruijswijk but doesn't have the team to take bonus seconds.

If anything, there are 3 hilly stages (10, 12, 16) where he could make his trademark hill attack and gain a lot of seconds.

Majka and Crush are this tours Uran

 

[SKSemtex]

Some people from TDF top ten are probably very pissed off today because of their choice.
I wonder what could be the chances of big TOM or even WVA here.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Great stage. Everything went as expected. My final top 10 GC prediction still looks good:

1. Pozzovivo
2. Kelderman
3. Almeida
4. Nibali
5. Pernsteiner
6. Caicedo
7. Majka
8. Pedrero
9. Fuglsang
10. Vanhoucke

 

[Breezy1985]

Be surprised if Ineos win the Vuelta with the year they are having.

All 4 leaders lose time at the Vuelta and pull out to prep for 2021 Giro

 

[Amazinmets87]

I get the feeling that Thomas and Yates have won the only grand tours they will win.

Would be pretty shocking if Thomas won one considering he'll be 35 next time he rides one.

 

[Sciatic]

Maybe but I wouldn't rule out Kelderman just yet. He can do good time trials. Not sure why Yates dropped so much.

Yates’s problem: he’s wearing those HUGE, dark sunglasses on a dark, rainy day and couldn’t tell who rode away from him. He thought he was still in the favorites group!

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Could end up seeing the three muppets Froome, Thomas and Bernal starting a GT together after all.

Thomas would have to get UCI permission - since the Vuelta start before the Giro ends.

 

[janraaskalt]

Thomas would have to get UCI permission - since the Vuelta start before the Giro ends.

Since this was a case of bad luck, that shouldn't be any problem.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1313140936713658370

View: https://twitter.com/laflammerouge16/status/1313140936713658370

 

[Velolover2]

Thomas is properly more interested in Flanders and Roubaix than the Vuelta.

 

[Eclipse]

So do we think Yates is definitely done for the podium?

3 mins is a horror show but if he just had a really bad day (with MS riding it seems unlikely there was something they knew about in advance ) at a really bad time (pace being pushed early with G off the back) the others will likely let him go if he tries an early punt and you'd not be shocked if he found a minute or more back on a gift if his legs are actually closer to TA level and not this .

Admittedly it's super hard to see but weirder things have happened

 

[bambino]

So do we think Yates is definitely done for the podium?

3 mins is a horror show but if he just had a really bad day (with MS riding it seems unlikely there was something they knew about in advance ) at a really bad time (pace being pushed early with G off the back) the others will likely let him go if he tries an early punt and you'd not be shocked if he found a minute or more back on a gift if his legs are actually closer to TA level and not this .

Admittedly it's super hard to see but weirder things have happened

I don't think that 3 minutes is enough for him to be allowed to go from the group of favs.

 

[SKSemtex]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1313140936713658370

View: https://twitter.com/laflammerouge16/status/1313140936713658370

That looks nasty.

 

[largebus]

So do we think Yates is definitely done for the podium?

3 mins is a horror show but if he just had a really bad day (with MS riding it seems unlikely there was something they knew about in advance ) at a really bad time (pace being pushed early with G off the back) the others will likely let him go if he tries an early punt and you'd not be shocked if he found a minute or more back on a gift if his legs are actually closer to TA level and not this .

Admittedly it's super hard to see but weirder things have happened

Given the rate that the contenders are thinning out he could still win the MR
Maybe he's doing a reverse of 2018, this was his bad day and watch him dominate the race from now